Advice for My Graduating Students

Last week one of my graduate students returned to the lab nest after seven long years away. I loved this student. I missed him when he left. He was kind and smart and organized. And he had great penmanship. He wrote well and he presented like a rock star. The only problem was that while he was great at pretty much everything, he had a passion for teaching. Which broke my heart.

I don’t know any teachers with ironed shirts.

Don’t get me wrong. My mom was a teacher for 40 years. I have mad love for the teachers. Teacher can tell you, it is both wildly personally fulfilling and heartbreaking all at once. But no teacher will tell you that it’s financially rewarding. “Do anything else if you can,” is what many of my favorite teachers have told me. No one goes into teaching for the money. In fact, many very sane people are deterred from teaching because the US pays so little for these folks who do pretty much everything to help students succeed.

As graduation approached seven years ago, I took this student aside and said very sternly, “No matter what you do, do NOT go into teaching.” Like the good pupil he was, he took my advice. But not that last bit of advice. He listened to the advice I shared on the first day he asked if he could come work in the lab. I told him he was welcome. I also warned him that while I have plenty of good ideas, I’m almost never right. Every one of my groundbreaking scientific ideas has started from a total “failure.” I just had to see was actually data telling me something else. Every simplistic notion for quick projects proved there are no simple projects but lots of amazing things to discover.

A new Maserati is more than my annual salary. Just sayin.

Mercifully, my best students believe me when I tell them I’m almost never right. And more importantly, this student knew he was a great teacher. Seven years later, he is a great teacher who works for an international exam prep company. He loves it. He travels the world helping medical students prep for boards, lives in Southern California and just bought his first Maserati. It’s white.

Here’s my new advice for trainees.Buy these pants. They are $60 and very comfortable, sturdy and easy to care for. Other than that, I’m just your cheer squad.

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The Fighty Squirrel is very thin pseud for a molecular and cellular neurobiology type who runs a lab studying neurodegeneration. She is mother to a 14yo half child/half honey badger and 16yo half child/half border collie and a Reviewing Editor at Journal of Neuroscience. She also sort of a badass at air hockey. She speaks for herself unless her employer likes it, in which case it's patented.

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His joy in his job makes him a winner. The Maserati is window-dressing, nothing more. Plus, white?! Seriously? That’s taking a big chance on looking like a d-bag that not only owns a Maserati but who is perpetually washing said Maserati. Though that might totally resonate with a small subset of would-be med studs.

In all seriousness, it’s truly heartening to hear a story about someone who has matched talents with joy and seen success flow from that. Thanks so much for sharing. Bravo him, and bravo you as a mentor, F.S.!

Also in all seriousness, your obsession with those trousers is getting a little freaky. But, yay for textile love connections.